On 10 December 2012, the Australian Government released the final version of its National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP).
The NHRAP represents a key plank of Australia’s Human Rights Framework
and is intended to ‘outline future action for the promotion and
protection of rights in Australia’.

The HRLC’s Director of Advocacy, Anna
Brown, has welcomed the final version of the NHRAP but said it should be strengthened to ensure more effective monitoring, implementation and measurement of human rights.

“The NHRAP is an
important way of ensuring Australia’s international obligations are
translated into practical, measureable action to improve the realisation
of rights in Australia,” said Ms Brown. ”The NHRAP helps Australia move
from ‘talking the talk’ to ‘walking the walk’ when it comes to
implementing commitments made during Australia’s Universal Periodic
Review by the UN Human Rights Council,” said Ms Brown.

The NHRAP has been updated to include
developments since the exposure draft was released, highlighting a
number of human rights achievements in 2012 but also significant human
rights concerns, such as the re-introduction of off-shore processing of
asylum seekers and the passage of the damaging ‘Stronger Futures’
legislation. “It goes without saying that any Government actions that do
not promote human rights should not be included in a human rights
action plan, including flagrant violations of international obligations
such as the off-shore processing regime,” said Ms Brown.

The HRLC and other NGOs remain concerned
about the NHRAP’s effectiveness. “While the final plan represents a
commendable list of 355 actions, it falls short of international best
practice in a number of respects,” said Ms Brown. “We asked
the Government to redraft actions to be goal or objective oriented and
instead in many cases the action remains focused on ‘inputs’ and funding
amounts rather than how and when particular measures of success will be
reached,” added Ms Brown.

The NRHAP provides timeframes for 35% of actions and performance indicators for only 9% of actions. “It’s pleasing
to see that the Government has responded to feedback from civil society
and included an increased level of detail to better explain particular
actions and their timeframes in some areas. However, the development of
performance indicators and timeframes for all actions is essential if we want the NHRAP to drive sustained action and make a difference on the ground,” added Ms Brown.

In addition, the Australian Government has not
offered an explanation for the removal or watering down of a number of
the actions that were included in the exposure draft of the NHRAP
released earlier in 2012. "It's disappointing to see key planks of the
Government's Human Rights Framework, such as education and capacity
building, significantly weakened through the withdrawal of future
funding," said Ms Brown.

"The Government has also removed the modest
commitment to develop a suite of human rights indicators in favour of a
limited pilot project, a significant weakness that leaves us without a
systematic method of measuring the effectiveness of Government policy in
improving the human rights situation on the ground," said Ms Brown.
"Without a robust plan for implementation, monitoring and evaluation,
the NHRAP runs the risk of stalling without any substantive results,"
added Ms Brown.

The NHRAP should also drive action by State and
Territory governments but without any contributions by NSW, Queensland
and Western Australia this will be a difficult feat, and a number of
commitments made by Victoria have been removed in the final version of
the NHRAP. "The lack of participation by some States in the NHRAP
process is very disappointing and calls into question their commitment
to human rights," said Ms Brown.

The Attorney-General's Department will be providing the HRLC with
additional information about the removal of certain actions from the
NHRAP and this information will be made available on the NHRAP website.